What Comes With Victory
by The Omnipotent Rainworm
Summary: In the middle of the last battle Harry gives in to Lord Voldemord and is killed. But what if he doesn t resurrect but gets summoned to a new world where he has to pose as a familiar to a young noble girl? Acompany him as he struggles to return to a fight he had to leave early because Voldemord will not stop just because the protgonist disappeared.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** J.K. Rowling has ownership of Harry Potter together with several publishing companies, Noboru Yamaguchi owns Familiar of Zero and all merchandise connected to it. This story though is mine.

**Autor´s note: **Well... here it is. My very own first fanfiction. I intend this story to be in the Zero no tsukaima universe with the feeling from the later Harry Potter books. I have most of the story planned out and it will be **huge**, like 100k+ words from first estimations. Most of it is still in my head lying around, waiting to be written but I am sure this will change. As this is my first published story I would welcome any comments and criticisms about speeling, Grammar or plot problems to improve myself.

Please enjoy

* * *

„_Tell me just one last thing" said Harry."Is this here real? Or is this just happening in my head?"_

_Dumbledore beamed at him, and his voice was clear and strong in Harry´s ears, though a bright green fog descended on them which blurred his shape._

"_Of course is it just happening in your head, Harry, but why in the world should this mean that it is not real?"_

_And with a bright green flash Harry disappeared, but he didn´t return to the forbidden forest and Voldemord. No, Harry went to another place where he was needed, even if he didn´t know jet._

Again Harry lay with his face on the floor. He smelt fresh grass, still wet with dew, which was strange for the forbidden forest and he felt sunshine on his back which was strange for the middle of the night.

Voices chattered in an unknown language. It sounded somewhat like French, but he heard enough from Fleur that the sound was a bit of, perhaps a dialect?

Slowly he opened his eyes for a bit, taking the strange scene in. He didn´t see much, missing his glasses, he noted. His only piece of clothing was the dark cloak he found in... Kings Cross. He saw walls enclosing what might have been a castle, a group of people in dark clothing, and a small person with unbelievable bright pink hair a bit away from the crowd. She, Harry concluded from the high-pitched voice, argued loudly with another person, this one was bald, in this strange not-French.

Finally they came to a conclusion, and the girl walked slowly, hesitatingly to Harry. He was by now sure that this little girl and these children, he judged by the voices had nothing to do with Voldemord.

By and large the scene was very strange to Harry. He expected to be brought back in the forbidden forest, back to Voldemord to fight again, but the environment was so cheerful, so bright and innocent. The sun shone brighter than ever since the Dementors started breeding, and the air was warm and pleasant.

The Pinkette was directly in front of him now and somehow this calmed Harry immensely. He decided to stop playing dead. Slowly he stood up, clutching his cloak around his body, and met her eyes.

* * *

`He looks poor, like a commoner,`were the first thoughts coursing through Louise´s head, as she looked up at his composed face. `And in a lanky sort of way good-looking.` He was tall when standing up and his middle-long black hair fell messily in his brilliant green eyes.

She was not happy with the way of events. In her fantasy it was always a brilliant flash of magic and she would behold her magnificent familiar, a proud dragon or a wild manticor. Not this man, no boy.

"Familiar, be honoured," she spoke disdainfully to him."Normally a noble like myself would never lower herself like this. Get on your knees!"

There was no understanding from him, only the same stoic mask. Slowly, as if talking to a child, he spoke a few words in an archaic sounding language. The boy seemed to expect her, or somebody else, to understand his gibberish as he looked at the other students questioning.

The confusion in the students only seemed to strengthen his composure,and enraged Louise. Nobody ignored Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, nobody looked elsewhere when she was talking. No longer caring for etiquette she chanted the words of binding under her breath and forcefully grabbed him at the collar, pulling his face down to eye level and slamming her mouth on his.

* * *

Harry staggered back in shock. He felt is if his brain got fried. It was **not** usual to forcefully kiss somebody who just appeared out of thin air. All thoughts of Lord Voldemord, the Deatheater and the war were blown out of his head by the sheer absurdity of the situation. Just what was going on with this girl? Why didn´t the other people react surprised? It was like this was _normal_ to them.

Suddenly a searing pain coursed through his head. Harry sunk to the ground and groaned in horrible agony, pressing his hands on his forehead. It was even worse than being touched by Lord Voldemord. Slowly the Pain ebbed away and Harry was again able to think coherently again. He could feel lines cut in the skin of his head, his curse scar was a ridge parting the distortion in half.

"What have you done to me," murmured Harry more to himself than to anybody else.

"I bound you as my familiar, peasant," the girl exclaimed with a bitter tone in her voice. "Feel honoured that I touched you."

"Well done Miss Valliére," said one of the people from the crowd, from the sound it was an adult man. "While you had problems with the summoning and your Familiar is a bit... odd, your binding was excellent, though you could have spoken more clearly in my opinion."

"Thank you Professor Colbert," the girl answered dejectedly. " I think I will return to my dorm, the... summoning has exhausted me."

She turned sharply to a Tower in the castle wall and stormed off, leaving a whispering crowd and a confused Harry back.

Harry turned to the man who might have been a teacher, the crowd looked like a class on a field trip at second glance, and steeped hesitantly to him.

"Well... would you mind explaining what just happened?"Harry asked hesitantly. At least he was pretty sure that this situation had nothing to do with Lord Voldemord.

"Ah, right." said Colbert with just as much uncertainty. "Well this is hard to explain. You must know, we are in the Tristain Academy of Magic. I am not sure where you are from, but Miss Valliére, the girl from before, used magic to summon a familiar and... well that is you."

"So you are telling me that because this girl used some strange magic I was brought here?" Concluded Harry with trepidation. "What are you going to do? I cannot stay here as the familiar to some brat! Aren´t you her Teacher? Find some way to send me back!" by now Harry nearly yelled at the professor.

"Now, now. There is no need to be angry. I am sure we can find a compromise" appeased Colbert with little success. "Miss Valliére would of course let you get home to visit family and to let you take care of your things, but you have to see, you are her familiar. You cannot just abandon her!"

"I would not abandon her, if she had not dragged me in this business. Let her look for another familiar" argued Harry heatedly.

"That is impossible! She can only have one familiar and the bond cannot be broken without the death of one of the partners."

This calmed Harry down at least." Then she will have to live without a familiar," he said slowly.

Colbert let out a big sigh. "You should still discuss this with Miss Valliére. It concerns her as well. I think she would not be against releasing you from the contract, she didn´t look very happy with a familiar as... complicated as you are."

" Now I am sure I could help you with searching for a way to break the contract, just because it was never broken before doesn´t mean nothing can be done." He got a sly gleam in his eyes. "But would you mind if I had a look on your runes? I could swear I have seen them before. And a human familiar, even if a commoner is still a very interesting research subject. And your language. You didn´t speak Tristanian until after the runes appeared. Do they act as a translator? Will you let me study them, please?"

"Of course, of course," said a bemused Harry, the man acted very much like Hermione with a secret dangling in front of her eyes. "Later if you don´t mind. I think I should have this talk with my... master first if you don´t mind."

"Ah, of course. Kirche," He called to one of the remaining students, the others having already left with their own familiars. Even Harry with his very stunted sight could see the rather voluptuous figure of the redhead woman who answered the professors call. A small girl with blue hair, a red dog-like thing and what seemed to be a blue dragon followed her. "Would you mind bringing... ah I didn´t catch your name."

"Just Harry," said Harry with a small smirk, reminiscing of his first meeting with Hagrid. These people seemed friendly enough, but it was always better to be save, and getting recognised as the boy who lived was not high on Harry´s list. First he wanted to get a bit more of a grip on the situation. This place was _strange. _Harry had never heard of Tristain, or a magic school this size, other than Hogwarts.

"Yes. Would you mind bringing Harry to Miss Valliére´s room? They should discuss the terms of their summon."

"That would be delightful," said Kirche cheerfully, with a suggestive wink to Harry. " I´m very interested in Harry myself.

"I am Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt-Zerbst," she introduced herself. "And this is my familiar, Flame." Harry recognised it now as a Salamander from his creature lessons, thought it was several times bigger than any he had seen before.

"Tabitha," the second girl said softly and pointed at the dragon. "Sylphid." Harry found it hard to believe that a dragon could be so, well so not-threatening looking. No spikes, no thorns, no finger-long teeth. Perhaps Hagrid always saw dangerous beasts like this.

As they three humans walked away, the familiars staying on the greens, Kirche began showing Harry the castle and chattering away at an insane speed.

"Louise is probably in the dorms crying her eyes out,because of her summoning. Nothing against you but she was under some pressure to perform. The girl can´t do magic to save her live, well except to make an explosion or two, but that is all she´s good at. She is even called the Zero because she hasn´t performed one spell in her live correctly. Every time she tries to use magic something explodes.

"Well not that it matters to you, you only want to get away from here right? I would want to get back too, if I were summoned somewhere out of the blue. Tell me how was your home? Your clothing is a bit... well you can´t really call this clothing, it´s only a cloak. Is this normal where you come from? Hehe, or did Louise interrupt something dirty and you had to throw something on in a hurry?" She said teasingly with good humour, thought Harry couldn´t really get a word in with her.

"No, it´s not normal." He said with a sheepish grin, letting her make her own conclusions. "I was in a bit of a situation. Would you tell me where I could get some clothing? It is a bit draughty in here and this is not the thickest cloak."

"I could look if I have something in my room, perhaps my ex left something and it´s on the way anyway."

They went on, Kirche asking Harry about his situation, Harry trying to evade her questions and Tabitha silently walking beside them. By the time they arrived at Kirches room she was convinced that Harry was definitely _interrupted_ in something and Harry was convinced that nobody would suspect him of having fought anything worse than a rabid girlfriend. He was still not sure how Kirche came up with _that _scenario.

Her room was plainly speaking a mess. Clothes were scattered around the room, the queen sized bed was unmade and yes there were men´s clothes, till the underpants, in very different sizes. Not caring to ask why several different men took of their clothing in the room a blushing Harry snatched some pants, and shirts from the floor and shooed the two girls out to dress. He noted that Kirche indeed had intended to stay and watch Harry change. Perhaps it was normal in this place, or the Englishmen were just to uptight. With his new clothes and his cloak he looked very much like any other student from this school.

When he emerged from the room Kirche smiled mischievously, which made Harry fear for his dignity. It was a bit like this smile the Weasley twins got when they made one of their more humiliating pranks. His light mood took a blow from this thought. Fred Weasley was dead. He died a few hours ago, fighting for a free world. And so did Harry in a way. Voldemord was nearly mortal again and Ron and Hermione would take care of the last horcrux together with Neville. In a way Harry did his duty. A horrifying thought crept in Harry´s mind.

" Now go on. Louise´s Room is just to the left, on the end of the corridor," Kirche pushed him in the direction of a wooden door, like any other door in this corridor. Harry hesitantly walked to the closed door. He opened it slowly and walked in the room. Louise was crying inside.

It was a heartbreaking sight, the small girl huddled in the corner of the bed and sobbed in her pillow. Tears streaked down her cheeks and she shuddered with every breath. Harry must have made some noise because she flinched and glared at him with red-rimmed eyes. Her eyes widened as she took in his appearance.

"What do you think you are wearing?" Asked she in a deadly cold voice, hardly a sign of weakness remaining from the picture she gave seconds before. "How dare you wear these clothes?"

"These?" asked Harry in honest confusion. He thought that they would have a conversation concerning both their lives, and not hat she would freak out on him for wearing the wrong clothes. "What is with these? Kirche gave them to me so I suppose they are normal here..."

"Normal for nobles!" interrupted Louise. "A commoner like you must not dress like us! It is against Brimir´s law. A commoner is a commoner and a noble is a noble and these borders must not be breached! It is a sacrilege."

"Ok," Harry appeased her in a calm voice. "I didn´t know that and I´m sorry for insulting your laws, but can we talk about my summoning? I will change later but this is more important. Ok?"

"What is there to talk about?" said Louise in a moody, but calmer tone. "You as my familiar would usually do things like protect me or fetch things like reagents for me. But you are a human so I suppose you could act as my servant for now."

"I´m afraid you misunderstood," Harry said. This conversation could be more complicated than he thought "I have no intentions of staying your familiar for any longer than necessary. Your teacher Colbert already promised to help me in breaking the contract in a way that doesn´t involve one of us dying. I only wanted you to understand that I expect you to help us in this because you are after all the one who started this whole thing."

* * *

Louise stared at this... this outrageous person. How dare he. How dare he demand of her to break this bound. She wanted to be nice to him, give him a chance as a servant to high nobility. Most commoners would love to have this chance, but first he came in her clothed in a nobles garb, spitting on Brimirs law, even if it was a trick by Kirche, and then he had the gall to **demand** her to break the bond. But she was a benevolent master. She would give him one last chance.

"I will not break the bond. I need a familiar to prove my magical ability therefore I will give you a place as a servant to me." said Louise with forced calm. "I´m high nobility and I can provide for you. **But** I will not tolerate this behaviour from you any longer. You will apologize immediately to me for making demands."

The two stubborn teenagers stared at each other, neither willing to back down. The boy spoke first, in a composed but passionate voice.

"I need to go back. My home country is in a civil war and I was summoned from... from an important mission that could influence the outcome oft the whole conflict." He looked in Louise´s eyes. His gaze had a burning quality to it, a need so strong it could move mountains. "I **must **go back, the lives of my friends, my companions and thousand others depend on it."

Louise couldn´t hold The commoner´s gaze any more. "But... you are my first magical success. You are evidence of my ability. Nobody can mock me because I can´t use magic from now on."

Louise´s mother had taught her rhetoric and she could hear that her arguments were weak, her tone soft and unconvincing. She knew she it was only token resistance because of her pride.

When The boy spoke again his voice was soft and gentle. "I know it is hard to be different from the others, but you will not earn their respect if you depend only on one success." He looked in her eyes again and this time his brilliant green eyes were warm and comforting. "Whether or not I am here you will have to prove yourself again and again. And who knows, perhaps the next time you will summon a familiar that... well that is better suited to you. Till then I will help you as good as I can."

And Louise believed him. That a commoner who appeared out of nowhere would help her. That she could depend on him until she was on her own legs, because she had no doubt that the boy would do exactly so, even if he had to return to her once he saved his country. He didn´t seem to be such a bad summon anymore.

"... You are right. My mother would say the same.`Don´t rest on your laurels. If you´ve proven your worth, prove it again.`... She would be disappointed in me." Louise looked at the boy. "What is your name?"

"Harry James Potter."


	2. A surprising Victory

**Autor´s note: **Aaaaand here it is: second chapter. I will try to keep up the rate of 1 chappy per week of about 3-4k words. Thank you all for the views.

* * *

Harry and Louise sat down on the down after their argument. Both were lost in their own thoughts

"Alright," Harry said, interrupting the silence. "With this pesky subject, whether I am your slave or not, out of the way we have to make some plans.

"Firstly I have to get back. Secondly we have to break the familiar bond, and thirdly improve your magical ability."

"Well the first should be easy, Mr. Colbert will help us with the second but the third... I´ve tried everything I could but nothing worked," despaired Louise.

"Hm... I could try to teach you a bit. I have taught magic for a bit and your problem with explosions sounds like something my friend Seamus had to deal with," pondered Harry.

"...Could it be that you forgot to tell me that you are a magician?" asked Louise in a deadpan voice.

"Ah.. well, Yeah," said Harry with a sheepish smile. "In my home, England, it´s kind of illegal to mention magic in certain situations. I wanted to get a better grasp of my surroundings before mentioning it. It was possible that you were affiliated with Lord Voldemord. He is the leader of the enemy faction in our civil war.

"This would have been a lot easier if you had said so," said Louise in a tired voice. She hesitated for a moment."I am sorry for insulting you."

"Don´t worry I´ve been called worse than servant. It is not even a real insult in my opinion."

"No, I meant that I'm sorry for calling you a commoner. It was wrong and insulting your honor." said the girl quietly.

"Don´t sweat it. I am a commoner after all."

"But you just said you are a noble!" said Louise confused.

"Do you set nobility on a level with the ability to use magic?" asked Harry intrigued. "That´s a strange system."

"It´s not strange!" insisted Louise heatedly. "It was made by the holy founder Brimir and the people are happy and content with the rule of the nobles."

"I didn´t mean to imply the system is bad. It´s just... well in my home the wizarding world separated from the muggle, that means non-magical, world centuries ago. So we don´t have any real contact with the muggles anymore. This system is probably just as good as any other."

"It´s better than `as good as any other`, it is willed by god. It is stranger that your magicians don´t rule." insisted Louise.

"Anyway," said Harry with a sight. "So, I´m noble? That´s a new one."

"Yes, a free Baron as you don´t have any holdings , or a family backing you here. I am the daughter of a Duke, which means that I am much higher in the social hierarchy, just under the royal family," said Louise in a Lecturing tone. " And as my familiar you would likely count as something like my personal retainer. I won´t force you to swear yourself to me but most people will probably see you that way."

"Alright. In exchange for your help in my return home I will help you with your magic, do you accept?"

"That is acceptable. Regarding your home, what is England exactly?"

"You seriously don´t know England? It´s a big Island north of Europe."

"And what is Europe?"

"Could it be that you are not very good at geography?"

"It´s not my problem that I don´t know some small backwater place in the barbarian lands!"

"Europe is a continent with more than five-hundred million people. The united Kingdom of great Britain, of which England is part of, has more than fifty-five million. I wouldn´t call that backwater."

"... that´s a lot. Fifty-five million is nearly as much as Halkeginia as a whole has. It´s hard to believe that there are that many people. Are you sure you these numbers are right?"

"More or less. I have lived mostly in the wizarding world so I don´t know that much about the mundane but I know there are about six billion people on the world."

"That can´t be. It´s impossible that nobody in Halkeginia knows of this. They are just to many people. Somebody must have met them." Said Louise unconvinced

"It is possible. Then mundane world is unaware of the magical through innumerable enchantments and magics. I have never heard of a continent called Halkeginia and I don´t think a whole continent could be overlooked. It could be possible that a group of wizards and witches completely separated themselves from the rest of the world, similar to the wizarding world." pondered Harry.

"That... That might be the great exile." Louise disquieted. "Brimir and his followers were exiled from the holy land. The Holy Book never said where the Holy Land was except somewhere on the other side of the desert of Nephthys."

"That´s great!" exclaimed Harry in excitement. "There is probably a way to the mundane world there and from then on it would be easy to go back to my home."

"No!"interrupted Louise quickly. "It is impossible to cross the Nephthys. The Elves kill everybody who tries!"

"The... elves?"said Harry bewildered. "I have never met a dangerous elf, well except Kreacher but it was more likely that he would insult you behind your back than really hurt you."

"You have met elves and survived? You must be a powerful magician." She looked at him in admiration.

"Yeah, houselves. Tiny, shriveled humanoids that serve old wizarding families."

"That doesn´t really sound like our superhuman, magical warriors of surreal beauty with a grudge against humanity."Said Louise with a soft giggling.

"We should get some sleep," said Harry with a yawn. "You look as if you will fall asleep while standing, and my day was quite exhausting as well. We can sort the rest out tomorrow with professor Colbert's help. Now where is my bed?"

Harry woke up very refreshed. Well, as refreshed you can be after sleeping on hay. The reason for this was a lack of nightmares, hell-like visions or horrifying headaches, which were the norm for his past year.

It might have simply been the distance from Voldemord, but something in Harry told him that the connection between him and the dark lord was completely severed. It was logical in all honesty. With the horcrux destroyed there should have been relief, but it astonished Harry that he felt absolutely nothing.

A small part in him hoped that his friends managed to carry out what Harry failed at, but the thought that Lord Voldemord was defeated without his help was strange. There was never a doubt in Harry´s mind that there would be a final confrontation between the two. Perhaps he wasn´t even needed anymore back home. No, there was no reason to doubt his resolve to return. Whether Lord Voldemord was dead or not, Harry still had to return.

A small groan came from the bed on the other side of the room. Something distinctly resembling a zombie emerged from the covers. On second glance it reveled itself to be a very tired Louise. It was a rather humorous scene as she tried to navigate in her room with closed eyes and in a daze. At least until she opened her eyes, saw Harry and reacted like a girl was supposed to react to a guy in her room.

She immediately drew back and snapped a staff from her bedside table in Harry´s direction. Reacting according to his war-sharpened reflexes Harry snatched the wand out of Louise´s hand and focused it on her instead. Finally she recognized him through her sleep-induced daze and gave him a scathing look.

"Don´t surprise me like that! You could have gotten hurt."

Harry chuckled at her. "Sorry, reflex. You shouldn´t point any weapon at a veteran."

She stared at him for a few seconds. She agreed with him flustered. "Right, I forgot. Sorry for overreacting."

"It´s alright. By the way, I need a new wand. Could I use your´s for a moment?" asked Harry.

"Yeah, sure." she watched interested as Harry used several grooming charms to brush his teeth and clean his clothes. "What are these spells? And what happened to your wand."

"Just some grooming spells against bad breath and stuff."

Harry considered the second question for a moment. He didn´t want to burden her with too much knowledge of the War. "My first one, Holly and phoenix-feather was broken, some five months ago. I used my friend´s usually, but I took one from an enemy, hawthorn something." He looked at her wand for a few moments. "Your wand is really good. I don´t think any other was as good as your´s, except my first."

"Well... thank you?" said Louise, not sure if that was a compliment or not. "And why does your forehead glow when you use magic?"

Harry turned around to the dressing mirror in the corner. Indeed, the runes on his forehead gave of a soft glow, barely noticeable. He felt a light tingle from the runes.

"They just lightened up when you started casting.

Harry examined the runes in the mirror. The silvery glow stopped when he put down the wand. They were definitely ancient runes, like Hermione studied them. To him they were gibberish. "The runes came with the summoning. Isn´t it normal for familiars?"

"No, not that I know of," Said Louise, peering over his shoulders. "The runes and the kind of beast are usually somehow connected with the elementary affinity of the noble, but I have never seen any like these"

Harry sighted. Something else to make him stand out as if being summoned from another world wasn´t enough. "Put on some Clothes. Then we can go to professor Colbert. Perhaps he knows something. That is if you have time today."

Louise indeed had time. The whole day to be exact. In order to get a bit more comfortable with their familiars the day after the springtime summoning ritual was traditionally free.

The sun shone high in the sky as they went down in the courtyard of the academy. They decided to have breakfast first in the Aldiss hall. Afterward Louise planned to show Harry a bit around the academy.

She had noticed that the way Harry used magic was completely different from what she was used to. His Incantation was rarely longer than one word and in a language that sounded vaguely like Romalian. The effects were by far more specific than anything what she was used to. It spoke of a strong affinity for non-elementary spells.

At first she wanted to learn the spells but with her it was more likely that she would knock out her teeth instead.

On the way Louise questioned Harry about his live before yesterday. He didn´t say much about the war he was in, or the enemy he was fighting, but he was more than happy to talk about his friends and the school he was learning magic at, Hogwarts.

She talked about herself as well as well. About her insecurities for her incompetence with magic, that she had no friends, her fear of disappointing her parents. He was a good listener. He didn´t interrupt her and he tried to console her when her fears were too obvious.

They sat down together in Alviss hall talking animatedly when Guiche interrupted them.

"I don´t think commoners are allowed in here," taunted Guiche with an arrogant smirk."Go to wherever the servants eat. I don´t want to eat in the same place as somebody like you."

Louise shoot up from her seat, ready to tear into Guiche when she felt Harry´s hand on her shoulder holding her back. He stood up calmly and pinned Guiche with a cold stare.

"And who are you to send me away? What gives you the right?" asked Harry in a voice that was heard through the hall. Most of the gathered students turned to him."

"I am Guiche de Gramont, the bronze and as your better I tell you to leave, peasant."

Harry´s lips twisted in a confident smirk. "And what right gives you that? _Your better_, my master Louise invited me to sit with her. You don´t outrank her. You are no teacher. You can´t _command_ me to leave. So go away and bother somebody else." The students surrounding them listened attentively.

Guiche cast a glance at the gathering crowd. He was humiliated in front of the whole school. "How dare you talk back to me, peasant? I will teach you your place!" yelled Guiche.

"And how? Are you gonna ask your daddy to make me apologize?" mocked Harry. It was just too much like fighting with Malfoy.

"No, I will teach you to respect your betters. I demand a duel from you!" said Guiche confidently.

Harry´s face lost all emotion and he turned to Louise, ignoring Guiche. "Is he a good fighter or is he just confident that he can beat up a commoner?" asked Harry in a dead voice.

"Well, the Gramonts have been involved with the military for many generations, but as far as I know he is only a bit better than average as a magician," answered Louise nervously. Harry had a look that just spelled danger. She was more worried for Guiche if Harry accepted the duel. Even if he didn´t like talking about his war, it was obvious that Harry was an experienced fighter.

"If I were to fight and beat him then that would do wonders for your reputation, right?"

She nodded with a slight grin. "Yes. Yes it would. I think by commanding you, he insulted me as you are my familiar. Would you please accept his challenge?"

Harry turned back to Guiche with a broad grin plastered on his face. "Very well, de Gramont I accept your challenge as you insulted my mistress with your rash words. Would you prefer if I put you down right here and now?"

"Stop this nonsense this moment."

Professor Colbert stormed through the doors of the hall. He looked at the gathered students furiously. "You very well know that duels are forbidden in the academy! Both of you will apologize to each other and we will let this be."

"I`m afraid we can´t stop now," said Guiche confidently. "The rules only say that duels between nobles are forbidden. But this boy is a commoner, and therefore it is my right to challenge him to a duel."

"You can´t be serious," protested Colbert. "Even then, Harry´s lord would need to agree-"

"And I do," interrupted Louise. "I agree in Harry´s stead to this duel."

Colbert looked at her upset. "You shouldn´t risk your familiars life at the first chance you get. Yesterday he didn´t even want to serve you."

"Professor Colbert, I already accepted the duel on my own," intercepted Harry. "I am well aware of the implications of this duel. If it calms you, we could make this duel to the first blood, without killing. You can even be the judge."

The professor didn´t look happy with the situation but had no choice but to agree. Better these kids fight each other with supervision than if they take matters in their own hands.

"Alright, we will take this out in the vestis court. That way there will at least be no collateral damage. And Guiche, I will have a talk with you afterward about acceptable behavior towards peasants. What you just did is not acceptable."

The four of them left the Alviss hall with a crowd of students on their heels. Louise walked beside Harry, whispering to him. "Are you sure you can take him? Our magic is definitely different so what I would call an average mage might not be average to you."

"I´m sure professor Colbert will stop the match after my first spell so I will set everything on my first strike. Either I win or the match will be stopped as Blondie would want to teach me a lesson. " explained Harry. "You will have the reputation of having a noble as your familiar or you will have the reputation of having a noble that beat Blondie as your familiar. It´s a win-win situation."

"Well if you are sure,"Louise drifted of. "do you need a wand? You can borrow mine if you want."

"No. It could tip him of. But I will need a new wand in the next few days along with clothes."

"You really didn´t take anything with you."

"It was rather _sudden _if you take my meaning."

The crowd reached the vestis court chattering among themselves. To them it was an entertainment, to see a noble prove their superiority. They made a huge circle, surrounding the duelists and Colbert. Louise stood at the edge of the crowd watching the fighters.

"I Jean Colbert the flame serpent will watch over this duel. The terms for this duel are till the first blood, or surrender, and no lethal attacks. Do both contestants agree?"

"Yes," said Guiche with a confident smile.

"I do," agreed Harry with a smirk mirroring Guiche.

"I expect you to honor these rules. If they are broken it will bring dishonor to you, your family and your country." Colbert pinned both with a piercing look."With this I call this duel. May the better man win."

The crowd fell silent as Harry and Guiche took positions at opposite sides. Guiche stood straight and confident. Harry stood straight as well, legs together and his side was faced forward.

"I am Guiche de Gramont," Introduced the noble himself. "My runic name is the bronze and I will crush you with my earth magic."

"Hm, an introduction?" said Harry with a glint in his eye. "Call me Harry. Just Harry."

Typical for a peasant. You don´t even have a real name. Anyway, just Harry, my Valkyries will be enough to deal with you."

Guiche drew his wand, fashioned in the replica of a rose, and swung it dramatically towards Harry. A petal loosened itself and as it touched the ground it gathered the surrounding earth and grew into a human-sized suit of plate armor, which transformed into bronze.

_Transfiguration of a large object and subsequent animation. He used the spell without preparation or incarnation. Either he is incredible talented in transfiguration or the spell was somehow prepared with the petal. Or it could be the difference in our way of using magic. The spells I have seen seem mostly bound to an element._

Harry´s thoughts were cut short as the suit stormed at him with surprising speed. It´s metallic fist extended into a powerful punch that would have knocked Harry out with one hit, if he hadn´t simply sidestepped the blow. Out of the movement he turned once on his leg, his cloak fluttering around him- and disappeared with a loud pop.

Everybody stared at the spot where Harry was seconds before in confusion. Suddenly Guiche felt somebody pluck his wand out of his fingers. He turned his head and saw Harry´s face over his shoulder.


End file.
